Monday
Apr032006
Immigration complexities and hypocrisies
Monday, April 3, 2006 at 3:00AM
By Ellen Ratner
A friend's recent story highlights the complexities – and the hypocrisies – of the immigration issue now being argued on American streets and the halls of Congress. My friend needed some rooms painted and received a bid from a local contractor, born in the United States. Looking at the number, her eyes nearly popped out of her head. "I could go to Home Depot tomorrow morning and hire a few of those illegals who always hang around the parking lot looking for work," she said. "I could get this job done for half this amount!"
"No, you don't want to do that," her contractor patiently explained. "For one thing, it's against the law. For another, you'll be putting American citizens out of work. And I'm not sure that we ought to do anything to encourage people to take desperate chances crossing those deserts down there. Many never make it." My friend has a large and law-abiding heart, and was persuaded. She gave the man her business.
A week later, when she walked into her house, she found three strangers busily painting her rooms. Her contractor came in and introduced her to his workers. "This is Wilson, Smith and Jones," he said, gesturing toward the men. They smiled and my friend realized that despite these Anglo-Saxon names, not one of the three spoke a word of English. Later, she discovered they were illegal immigrants from Mexico, hired at rock-bottom rates, while her contractor charged her at the top of the market.
Today my friend is convinced that if a pollster asked her contractor about illegal immigration, he'd be the first to start screaming about how "those" illegals are sneaking into America, ripping us off for welfare benefits and free medical care, filling up our prisons while sending whatever money they do earn back to Mexico.
Welcome to the immigration debate.
On one side, there are those who favor punishing immigrants who illegally cross our borders, mostly drawn by the same economic opportunities that lured our own ancestors here in times past. These Americans want to criminalize immigrants' status to felons, build a wall so high and dug so deep that it can neither be scaled nor tunneled under, and then commence the forcible deportation of an estimated 11 to 12 million people – surely one of the largest ethnic cleansings in world history.
At the other extreme are those who favor erasing the border altogether – let anyone in who wants in and our laws, budgets and national security be damned. Let the immigrants fill our sweat shops, wash our dishes, clean our toilets and cut our lawns, stock shelves at Wal-Mart, flip burgers at McDonald's and paint our houses. These Americans are less interested in rule of law, decent working conditions for all U.S. residents and border security than they are in making big bucks from brown people.
These are the extremes. So who is in the middle? The perplexing answer is that all of us are in the middle, including many of those allegedly on the extremes – and that is what lends so much falsehood and hypocrisy to the debate. Most Americans, whether they will admit it or not, work, play, shop, employ, go to school with, and ride the bus or subway with illegal immigrants. And most Americans will tell you that the illegal immigrants they know personally are usually hard-working, deeply religious, and hold moral and civic values that put to shame many citizens.
But when asked about illegal immigration – those others who are pouring across our borders in one brown, lawless mass – most Americans will describe criminals, welfare cheats and parasites. Manuel who cuts your lawn is a great guy; Rosa who watches your kids, or does your wash, or serves you coffee in your neighborhood restaurant is a wonderful lady. But those illegal immigrants? Make them felons, deport them, build a wall, dig a moat.
But the truth is more complex. The anti-immigration voices have a point – America is a nation of laws and Congress should have the guts to either legalize everybody's status or reform the immigration law. Even those who shamelessly exploit immigrants have a point – immigrants come because what is exploitation to us is a major opportunity for them, in light of the non-existent jobs available in the Mexican countryside.
My belief is that we do need better border security, but we also need to address the status of the immigrants already here. Most Americans, even those who demand deportation, would recoil in horror at the sight of 12 million illegal immigrants being forcibly uprooted from their homes, jailed and led at gunpoint across the border. Humanity requires some sort of process to regularize the status of those illegals already here. This, together with tighter borders, is the only practical answer to a tough, tough, question.
A friend's recent story highlights the complexities – and the hypocrisies – of the immigration issue now being argued on American streets and the halls of Congress. My friend needed some rooms painted and received a bid from a local contractor, born in the United States. Looking at the number, her eyes nearly popped out of her head. "I could go to Home Depot tomorrow morning and hire a few of those illegals who always hang around the parking lot looking for work," she said. "I could get this job done for half this amount!"
"No, you don't want to do that," her contractor patiently explained. "For one thing, it's against the law. For another, you'll be putting American citizens out of work. And I'm not sure that we ought to do anything to encourage people to take desperate chances crossing those deserts down there. Many never make it." My friend has a large and law-abiding heart, and was persuaded. She gave the man her business.
A week later, when she walked into her house, she found three strangers busily painting her rooms. Her contractor came in and introduced her to his workers. "This is Wilson, Smith and Jones," he said, gesturing toward the men. They smiled and my friend realized that despite these Anglo-Saxon names, not one of the three spoke a word of English. Later, she discovered they were illegal immigrants from Mexico, hired at rock-bottom rates, while her contractor charged her at the top of the market.
Today my friend is convinced that if a pollster asked her contractor about illegal immigration, he'd be the first to start screaming about how "those" illegals are sneaking into America, ripping us off for welfare benefits and free medical care, filling up our prisons while sending whatever money they do earn back to Mexico.
Welcome to the immigration debate.
On one side, there are those who favor punishing immigrants who illegally cross our borders, mostly drawn by the same economic opportunities that lured our own ancestors here in times past. These Americans want to criminalize immigrants' status to felons, build a wall so high and dug so deep that it can neither be scaled nor tunneled under, and then commence the forcible deportation of an estimated 11 to 12 million people – surely one of the largest ethnic cleansings in world history.
At the other extreme are those who favor erasing the border altogether – let anyone in who wants in and our laws, budgets and national security be damned. Let the immigrants fill our sweat shops, wash our dishes, clean our toilets and cut our lawns, stock shelves at Wal-Mart, flip burgers at McDonald's and paint our houses. These Americans are less interested in rule of law, decent working conditions for all U.S. residents and border security than they are in making big bucks from brown people.
These are the extremes. So who is in the middle? The perplexing answer is that all of us are in the middle, including many of those allegedly on the extremes – and that is what lends so much falsehood and hypocrisy to the debate. Most Americans, whether they will admit it or not, work, play, shop, employ, go to school with, and ride the bus or subway with illegal immigrants. And most Americans will tell you that the illegal immigrants they know personally are usually hard-working, deeply religious, and hold moral and civic values that put to shame many citizens.
But when asked about illegal immigration – those others who are pouring across our borders in one brown, lawless mass – most Americans will describe criminals, welfare cheats and parasites. Manuel who cuts your lawn is a great guy; Rosa who watches your kids, or does your wash, or serves you coffee in your neighborhood restaurant is a wonderful lady. But those illegal immigrants? Make them felons, deport them, build a wall, dig a moat.
But the truth is more complex. The anti-immigration voices have a point – America is a nation of laws and Congress should have the guts to either legalize everybody's status or reform the immigration law. Even those who shamelessly exploit immigrants have a point – immigrants come because what is exploitation to us is a major opportunity for them, in light of the non-existent jobs available in the Mexican countryside.
My belief is that we do need better border security, but we also need to address the status of the immigrants already here. Most Americans, even those who demand deportation, would recoil in horror at the sight of 12 million illegal immigrants being forcibly uprooted from their homes, jailed and led at gunpoint across the border. Humanity requires some sort of process to regularize the status of those illegals already here. This, together with tighter borders, is the only practical answer to a tough, tough, question.
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